James Blackwood PEARSON

(1920-2009)

Senate Years of Service:

1962-1978

Party:

Republican

PEARSON, James Blackwood,
a Senator from Kansas; born in Nashville, Davidson County, Tenn.,
May 7, 1920; with his parents moved to Virginia in 1934 and
attended the public schools of that State and Duke University,
Durham, N.C.; during the Second World War interrupted schooling to
serve as a pilot in the Naval Air Transport of the United States
Navy 1943-1946, and was discharged as a lieutenant; graduated from
the law school of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in
1950; admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in
Mission, Kans., in 1950; assistant county attorney of Johnson
County, Kans., 1952-1954; county probate judge 1954-1956; member,
State senate 1956-1960; did not seek reelection but returned to the
practice of law; appointed on January 31, 1962, as a Republican to
the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of
Andrew F. Schoeppel; elected on November 6, 1962, in special
election for the term ending January 3, 1967; reelected in 1966 for
a full six-year term, and again in 1972; served from January 31,
1962, until his resignation December 23, 1978; was not a candidate
for reelection in 1978; was a resident of Gloucester,
Massachusetts, at the time of his death on January 13, 2009.